The very latest GfK Retail and Technology figures indicate two
clear trends in handset preference for the European consumer;
phones with an advanced Operating System (OS) and touchscreen
technology.

Europe has seen the market share of handsets sold with an
advanced OS nearly double over the last 13 months, rising from
13.8% to 26.9%, GfK says. Across the region in September 2010, one in every five advanced OS handsets sold were Android OS, a significant increase from just one in twenty in March 2010. The UK leads the trend in the region, with advanced OS representing 43.4% of handsets.

In terms of phones with touchscreen technology, over one third of
handsets sold in Europe were touchscreen in September 2010, up
21% compared to the same month a year ago. This compares to one
in five in Asia and one in ten in the Middle East and Africa.

"The smartphone phenomenon is fuelling the growth we see in
global mobile phone sales and in some countries half of the
phones sold in October were smartphones," commented GfK's Global
Telco Marketing Director, Aaron Rattue. "Together with the
expected boom in media tablets , this will mean the battlegrounds
of the mobile web and operating system will be even more
competitive in 2011."